Dirt rained everywhere, with it came a deafening sound. Ara looked around herself. Dead bodies were laying on the ground, fellow soldiers gone, their weapons cast to the side, their eyes still and lifeless. They were covered in mud and stone, their hair plastered to their foreheads. Their uniforms were ripped and torn and bloody, and their hands were scarred and bleeding. Ara felt sick to the core, she hated the sight of dead people laying around her. In her hands lay her gun, heavy to hold and a pain to use. She was leaning against a wall of sacks, at some point she will have to do it again. Up, point, aim, shoot. She took one last breath and sprang up. Ara saw him, she took aim, she pulled the trigger.

He fell to the ground. The lifeless body just slumped forward and landed face-first into the mud. Jack didn't even know the boy, but he always felt some sort of loss when a man dies. He shook his head and focused back onto the fight. He held up his rifle between the small gap in the concrete wall he made for himself and he waited. No sound nor movement came. For what seemed like the first time in a long time, there was silence in the streets. Jack closed his eyes for a moment, taking in the soundless noise. He thought of the time when there was no war, when his mother would bake him pastries and do his laundry and comb his hair, and then his father would come home from work in his work clothes, and then his mother would kiss him on the cheek and ask him how his day was and he would complain to her about it, and she would listen. Listen to every word he said while she was cleaning or cooking. Until the day came. Now he could see his mother slap his father whilst shouting and sobbing at him. He could see his father screaming back at her, pointing a finger at her with an aggressive look. That all happened on THE day...

"Jack!" it was the colonel, his eyes wild with fright, "What are you doing just sitting there! Those bitches are raining shells on us!" Jack, still slightly dazed, did nothing. Something like a whip flashed across his face, leaving a burn behind, bringing him back into the real world. "Get it together man! We gotta get outta here! You hear? We gotta get outta here!" Jack stumbled onto his feet and ran for his life. He ran through stones, ran through mud. Every second a new shell was let off, only missing him by a few meters. One next to him, one behind him. His ears were ringing, his heart was pounding, his lungs were scorching. Step after step, leap after leap..

The girls were all rounded together in the square. The calm chatter echoed through the walls of the streets, womens' voices bouncing off the concrete, the gossip spreading through crowds of friends and girlfriends. Ara stood among all of the chaos listening to the noise, phased out from reality. "Aria!" a voice she recognized awoke her. Emma was running up to her with a smile on her face, blonde hair bouncing up and down in her ponytail. Her little face was beaming all over and her brown eyes were bright with love. Ara smiled at her and waved. "Hey Emma, how many times do I have to ask you to call me Ara?" Emma rolled her eyes and grinned. "As many as I have to remind you that I don't like that name" she replied and then stretched onto her toes and leaned up to kiss Ara on the lips. Ara kissed back, feeling Emma place her hands behind her neck to pull her in closer. Gently she cupped Emma's cheek with her hand and started to stroke her temples. Slowly they drew apart. "Come on," said Emma, "Let's go home"